"Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other elected officials?"

That's the question Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) put to the National Security Agency's chief in a bluntly worded letter Friday. It seems, however, that the agency cannot categorically say no.

Sanders didn't use the word "spy" lightly. He was careful to define his terms, indicating he meant the collection of phone records from personal as well as official telephones, "content from Web sites visited or e-mails sent," and data that companies collect but don't release to the public.

“You are being watched. The government has a secret system: a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know, because I built it. I designed the machine to detect acts of terror, but it sees everything.

Every single Republican candidate in 2014/2016 is going to have to assume that every phone call they make, their tax records, their medical history, every Email they send, everything they and their staffers access on the internet, and everywhere they are, at any given moment is being tracked, and made available to the Democrat opponent.

All of this, and an openly hostile mainstream media ready to pounce on the info, as well.

This going to be like campaigning in 1936 Nazi Germany. Are we really ready for it?

17
posted on 01/04/2014 8:30:58 PM PST
by tcrlaf
(Well, it is what the Sheeple voted for....)

There were theories after the Affordable Care Act, about how Roberts could write the “against” majority opinion before writing the “for” majority opinion. There were suspicions of blackmail.
Then Snowden’s leaks came out.
Now it looks much more likely that the administration had dirt on Roberts and forced him to change his vote.

And since they are monitoring everyone, Congress is most certainly monitored.

The feds already interfered in the 2012 elections by denying non-profit status to many Tea Party groups and auditing critics of the administration. No one should think that the feds aren’t building up dossiers on every official to either force them to change a decision or keep them in line.

Speaker of the House John Boehner is selected for what Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer calls the Tollbooth Strategy, explaining, You pay money at a tollbooth in order to use a road or bridge.

The methodology in Washington is similar: if someone wants a bill passed, charge them money to allow the bill to move down the legislative highway. Schweizer reported that Boehner apparently used the Tollbooth Strategy to collect more than $200,000 in political donations from executives just days before holding votes on bills critically important to their industries.

The US House of Representatives is analogous to a Police Force - - - their main job of Check and Balance is to arrest the perp by Impeaching the perp.

The US Senate is analogous to a Jury of Peers who have the power to throw the Impeached perp off of the taxpayer gravy train, take away his residence, ban him from building a Library paid for by us, and ban him from using his personal Corporate Jet, Air Force One.

Most RINO Americans want to wait, Wait, WAIT! until they control the House, the Senate and the White House.

To those weak-kneeded summer soldier patriots I say Enjoy the Obamanation that you have tolerated since January, 2009.

In similar manner, we Summer Soldier Conservatives continue to tolerate a wimpy, hand-wringing, sobbing, crybaby Speaker of the House Boehner as our sorry chief policeman.

Oh, if only my best friends across the aisle would just play nicey nice - - -  is the perfect quote that fire-in-the-belly Socialist-Democrats love to hear from their doormat, cowardly, Obamacrat RINOs.

Yes indeed, as long as we WAIT for things to be PERFECT we will never attack those whose goal is to destroy the US Constitution.

Suck it up you sorry House RINOs, and replace John Benghazi Coverup Boehner with SC Rep Trey Gowdey, or SC Rep Joe Wilson.

Without a fire-in-the-belly Republican Speaker of the House, Obamacrat RINOs will continue to cave in to their best friends across the aisle, to the unbridled glee of every Democrat voter in America!

House RINOs: Pretend that you are paid by taxpayers to fight to enforce the US Constitution.

This and this alone should be enough for the US Congress to ELIMINATE the NSA lock, stock and barrel. These arrogant unelected drones presume to spy on their alleged bosses, and the bosses’ elected representatives to boot?

Fire everyone in the agency, and seal the doors. The CIA and FBI can go back to doing what they were supposed to do.

And let it be a warning to the remainder of the alphabet agencies that their existence depends on the permission of THE PEOPLE.

35
posted on 01/04/2014 10:31:24 PM PST
by Don W
(Know what you WANT. Know what you NEED. Know the DIFFERENCE!)

I’d bet Obama’s bank account they have a file two feet thick on every republican in Congress and one an inch think on Joe Biden. This is the forming of the One World Government. The more info it has, the more it can attack. America has a free and independent nation is gone. You don’t think so, just sit down and think about all you can no longer do that you once could do. Think about all you have lost. All the freedoms gone. Everything you now pay for that once the guy getting it paid for. Think about what America once stood for. Now we stand for free drugs, free abortions, sit on your ass for free stuff, people voting in our elections that are not even citizens, yada yada yada. It goes on and on. Nope. The America that I have lived in for over 60+ years is long, long gone. We are now in the dark empire of the left and Satan.

43
posted on 01/05/2014 6:32:23 AM PST
by RetiredArmy
(I am proud to be a Christian and follower of my Lord Jesus Christ. Time is short for U to know Him!)

This and this alone should be enough for the US Congress to ELIMINATE the NSA lock, stock and barrel.

....and every single employee of the agency blacklisted from working for government (Federal, State or Local), and ANY job related even tangentially to Information Technology, and ANY job involving Personally Identifying Information.

The employees knew damned well what they were signing on to.

45
posted on 01/05/2014 7:04:59 AM PST
by Lazamataz
(Early 2009 to 7/21/2013 - RIP my little girl Cathy. You were the best cat ever. You will be missed.)

Absolutely. I would also like to know if the spying was focused on those of a particular party or political ideology. Those that control the information at the NSA could use that information to coerce / blackmail their way to their own legislative agenda, and essentially to act as a shadow government.

More like Bernie is outraged that a Marxist senator would be spied upon by a Marxist regime that he has backed on all counts. He will only put country over party, when his goal of 1 leftist party is achieved.

50
posted on 01/05/2014 8:30:57 AM PST
by Vaquero
(Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)

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